And thus, summer was gone in the blink of eye, lost forever between intercontinental travel, new jobs, and most recently a small family reunion in Los Angeles to celebrate my Dad's milestone 70th birthday. There has been much baking and eating of fried foods. But the first pumpkin showed up last night in our bi-weekly CSA box and this, plus the September back-to-school-ness that lingers so long after the school years have ended, heralds the symbolic beginning of autumn. Symbolic because here in Los Angeles the seasonal transitions sometimes happen in name only, or in the culinary shifts from strawberries to apples and renewed focus on projects over leisure. Like the project of home ownership that is quickly coming to dominate our lives. More on that on another day.